Matthew 2:13-23
December 28, 2025
This is the last Sunday of 2025, which means the holiday season is coming to an end. In about a week the lights and decorations, the presents and parties, and the smells and sounds of Christmas will soon be replaced with the old routines of life. After the excitement, the gatherings, and all of the work that’s involved in our Christmas preparations, some people will struggle a little bit with what appears to be a post-holiday letdown.
And I wonder if Mary and Joseph felt some of those same things? After all, their Christmas preparations were very challenging, but also very exhilarating. First, they had to deal with the reality that the child conceived in Mary was from the Holy Spirit, which probably involved a lot of doubt and questioning from family and friends. Second, they had to make an 80-mile trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem to register for the census while Mary was pregnant; and then when they arrived there was no room for them in the inn. But finally, as they got settled in some kind of barn or stable after what had to have been an exhausting trip, they had the excitement of the Son of God being born, the visit of the shepherds, and later the visit of the Wise Men from the east bringing gifts. But now, according to our Gospel lesson, all those things are past, so what happens next? I don’t know if Mary and Joseph had any post-holiday letdown, but I would guess that they started making plans for raising a family, which involved figuring out where they were going to live and how they were going to make a living.
But if they had any thoughts about settling down right there in Bethlehem or going directly back to Nazareth to quietly raise their son, God made it clear that He had other plans. Life was not going to be peaceful and quiet for Mary and Joseph, because the baby they were raising was God’s Son, the Savior of the world, and Satan was going to do everything he could to destroy the Savior. So you could say that Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus had to be placed in God’s witness protection program for a while.
When the Wise Men told King Herod that they had come to visit the newborn King of the Jews, this bothered Herod. He was the King of the Jews, or so he thought. Wondering if this newborn child would be a threat to his throne, Herod decided that this child had to be eliminated. So Herod ordered his soldiers to go to Bethlehem to kill all boys under the age of two. Meanwhile, God sent an angel to Joseph in a dream who told him in Verse 13 to “take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt (which was a place where Mary & Joseph had no family, no job, and no home); and stay there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to kill him.” So Joseph got up in the middle of the night, and he & Mary and baby Jesus made their way to Egypt, where they stayed until Herod died.
Then, after they had settled in Egypt for a while, God sent an angel again to Joseph who told him in Verse 20 that “it’s now safe to go back to Israel, so take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, because those who sought to kill the child are dead.” So Joseph took Mary and Jesus and headed to Israel. But then in Verses 22-23, God warned him in a dream not to go to Israel, because Herod’s son was now in charge and he was just as bad as his father. So he took baby Jesus and Mary and went back to their hometown of Nazareth as verse 23 says, and settled there so, unbeknownst to Joseph, the Scriptures would be fulfilled.
Three times Joseph received commands from God in a dream that probably did not make a lot of sense. And each time Joseph could easily have said to God, “Now wait a minute, I don’t think it’s fair that I have to keep moving from place to place. If this child is going to save people from their sins, then can’t you keep us safe wherever we live?” But Joseph did not argue with God, even though he had no idea he was following God’s plan in that he was fulfilling different prophecies from the Old Testament, he simply listened to God with a faith that obeyed Him.
As we look back at 2025, we might have a lot of questions from the past year in which we did not understand God’s ways. Such as, “Why did I have to spend time in the hospital? Why were finances so tight, especially when I tried to be faithful to God? Why did my best friend turn against me at school?” But just as Joseph learned that God was in control and had a plan and purpose for everything He did, so God has a plan and purpose for everything that happens in our lives. We would certainly prefer that life was smooth and easy, but that’s not how life was for Jesus and we should not expect better treatment than Jesus received. We all know that the Christian life involves suffering and setbacks. However, suffering is often wrongly seen only as a sign of God’s angry judgment upon us. Suffering can be a blessing in disguise or a mark of God’s love. A person getting sick may be part of God’s plan, in that the illness may be the one thing that brings a family together or brings someone back to church. Everything that happened to Mary and Joseph was at the very least a challenge to their way of life and even their faith. But God did not put them through those challenges to punish them, but to help and protect them. And so it may be with us, as well.
Our lives in 2025 may not have always gone as planned. Maybe we or someone in our family was diagnosed with cancer or experienced the loss of employment. Instead of easy living, maybe we found ourselves frightened, confused, or questioning God’s ways as a result of living in a fallen world. This same devil, who tried to hurt Jesus after He was born, is still at work today and sometimes it seems like he works extra hard on Christians. As we prepare for a new year this week, Satan will try to convince you to put away your Christmas joy and faith, saying, “You can stop being so religious and joyful now, Christmas is over and it’s time to get back to the daily grind.” And sometimes we listen to those thoughts, and as a result our desire to worship goes down with the lights and our joy disappears with the wrapping paper.
God has a plan for each one of us and He is leading us each day to our heavenly home, but along the way things may not go as we would like or as we had planned. I don’t know what will happen in 2026, but I do know that God will be with us. He will lead us through mountains and valleys, and through joys and sorrows, because He loves us, just as He loves His own Son. Unfortunately, God will not eliminate all the evil that we may face, just as He did not eliminate King Herod on the spot or prevent him from killing all those innocent baby boys. However, He does warn us to flee from sin & evil, and He constantly calls us home through His Word & love.
We don’t know exactly how long Joseph, Mary, and Jesus remained in Egypt, but someone had to die before they could return home to Nazareth. Our text tells us that once King Herod died, Joseph was informed by God that he could now go home. Well, someone had to die before we could travel to our new heavenly home, and that someone was Jesus. He paved the way for us by doing everything necessary, including dying on a cross, for our eternal life in heaven.
Did your life take an unexpected detour last year? Did it not go according to your plan? Did you find yourself riding a rough road of suffering and hardships? If you did, then learn from the example of baby Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, because such is the way of all who follow our loving God in this sinful world. The Christian road, while it is filled with many joys, also involves many challenges and difficulties, as well. So in 2026, when your road in life seems to take a turn for the worse, do not listen to the devil’s foolish words that God has abandoned you. God led Jesus, Mary, and Joseph home to Nazareth in a rather unusual way to protect and save them; and He leads us home in ways that we may not expect for the same reasons.
As we begin a new year, consider the ways that God will use you to serve others and to be served according to His plan. And when things do not go exactly as you would like in 2026, take comfort in the fact that we, like Mary and Joseph, carry with us the Savior of the world, who by His very presence protects us, saves us, and lives within us to that He can use us to carry out His plans in order to be a blessing to others.
